Noynoy Aquino desperately needs the Bangsamoro Basic Law to be passed. He sees it as his golden parachute. With his six years of ineffectual leadership coming to a close, he needs something to gloss over his failure. So desperate is Noynoy about leaving the BBL as his legacy that he is willing to pay for it at any price. But what a stiff price there is to pay for the BBL.
On January 25, Noynoy secretly let loose the elite Special Action Force of the police against two wanted international terrorists in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. With the raid, Noynoy was trying to hit two birds with one stone. If it succeeded, Noynoy will have contributed his share in the global fight against terrorism. And it will serve to deodorize a dear old friend, Alan Purisima, from the stink of corruption that has started to hound him.
But Noynoy was playing with fire in Mamasapano. The raid was to take the SAF right into the heart of MILF territory. The MILF is Noynoy's partner in the BBL deal. The irony of striking deep into MILF territory while continuing to deal with the MILF was not lost on Noynoy. That is why he kept the raid a secret from those who ought to know about it. Only he, Purisima, and the SAF commander, Getulio Napenas, were in on it.
The raid succeeded in killing only one terrorist. The other, though wounded, managed to escape. Operational delays in the positioning of backup troops resulted in the overwhelming of two SAF units by the MILF and its BIFF allies. All in all, 44 of the SAF commandos were killed. A lot of them could have been saved if military reinforcements arrived on time.
But from 5 a.m. of that fateful day when he learned that things had gone terribly wrong to late afternoon when all of those pinned down had been annihilated, Noynoy as commander-in-chief never gave instructions, much less direct orders, for the military to move in and reinforce the beleaguered SAF troops. If he gave the order, it will mean the collapse of the peace talks and the end of the BBL.
With no direct order from the commander-in-chief to reinforce and save the SAF, the military was left in a quandary. First, it was not notified about the raid, which was a hush-hush affair known only to Noynoy, Purisima and Napenas. Second, it could not move for fear it might violate the peace process. Only a direct order from the commander-in-chief could have compelled the military to move as quickly as the situation on the ground demanded.
But the order did not come. Why it did not come is now the subject of so much speculation and conjecture. The sad thing is that we will never know the truth about what happened. As can be observed in the congressional hearings into the incident, there is a clear attempt to bring accountability only to the level of Purisima and Napenas.
None of the Cabinet officials and military officers were willing to depart from the line that it was lack of coordination that was to blame for the tremendous loss of lives. Each in their own turn at the microphone traipsed around the truth as if it was a trivial matter. Nobody had the balls to admit that had the president, the commander-in-chief, given the order, helicopter gunships could have promptly taken to the skies to spell the difference between life or death.
But the commander-in-chief himself had no balls. He had no balls to admit right away that he knew of the raid, that he approved of the raid, that he knew when it was going to be launched. He had no balls to admit right away that he needed to keep the raid a secret because it might violate the peace process that he himself so desperately wanted to result in the BBL. He had no balls to admit that he violated the Ombudsman suspension order on Purisima just to keep the raid a secret.
After three days of silence, he was forced to make a public statement but still had no balls to admit what he had done. He hemmed and hawed and said nothing. When the bodies of the 44 slain SAF troops came home, he did not have the balls of a father to be there for his sons for the last time. He instead enjoyed touring a new car manufacturing facility. At the necrological rites, he did not have the balls to humble himself by coming on time. He came late.
Noynoy does not have the balls to own responsibility for everything that happened. Instead he is letting his old friend Purisima and the innocent Napenas to take the fall for him. There were just him, Purisima and Napenas who were in on Mamasapano from the planning stage to its execution. But Noynoy is saving only his own neck. Because he does not have the balls that a true leader has.
As a result, there is tension between the police and military organizations because of what happened. There would have been no room for such tensions if the commander-in-chief had the balls to exercise his authority and leadership from the very start. Had Noynoy come forward and come clean right on the first day, there would have been none of the finger-pointing between the police and the military today. Instead of calls for his resignation, there would have been praises.